Manage address books and import contacts

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In this video, author Megan Hoffman demonstrates how to manage address books and import contacts. Import contacts from external sources. Prep an Excel file with contacts to be imported. Save the Excel file containing contacts as a .csv file. Share contacts as a business card or as an Outlook contact. Share a contact folder and assign permissions. Manage multiple address books. Discuss Outlook address books including the Global Address List, Contacts, and custom address books.

- In this video, you'll learn to manage address booksand import contacts.Let's take a look at the MOS objectives in this section,you'll learn to manage multiple address books,import contacts from external sources,and share contacts.These will all be important for the MOS exam,so be sure to practice each of these.So here I am in Outlook,and you can see I'm looking at the People module.We'll start out by managing multiple address books.It's good to note that your Outlook accounthas an address book called Contacts by default.

You always see this automatically when you click on People.If you connect Outlook to any social networks,these address books would display here as well.However, this is outside of the scope of the MOS exam.If you have an Exchange account,you also have access to the global address list.This is the one that's maintained and updatedby the Exchange administrator,and includes info about employees.This address book doesn't appear in this list.However, using the Home tab on the ribbon,you can click on Address Book.

I'll go ahead and click Address Bookat the right side of the screen.Notice that Global Address List is the default.This again is the address book maintained by IT,remember, you can't change this one.I'll go ahead and close this address book.You can create a custom address book within Outlook,such as an address book for customers,vendors, or personal contacts.To do this, I'll right-click on Contactsand then choose New Folder.I'll type the name Customers,verify that Contact Items is selected in the middle,and that Contacts is selected down below.

From here I'll click OK.Notice that the Customers address booknow displays at the left.I can click on Customersand begin adding contacts to it.The next MOS objectiveis to import contacts from external sources.In this example,I have a .csv file with contact information.You can see on the screen I'm displayingCustomers.csvfrom the exercise file.It's important to notethat if you've got a regular Excel file,you'll need to save it as a .csv,or comma-separated file,before you can import it into Outlook.

You can do this by clicking File,Save As,choosing your location,and then setting the Save As type to .csv.I'll go ahead and cancel thisbecause I've already done this.The setup of this file is important.You want to have headings across the top in row 1,and then the information for each column below that.When we import this into Outlook,we'll need to map these column names,such as Name, Email Address, Address 1,City, State, and Zip,to tell them where to show up in the contact form.

We'll walk through this next.I'll go ahead and close this file,and you can see now that I've returned to Outlook.It's a best practice to create a separate address booklike we did with Customersfor importing your contacts.That way, if you have any issues with the import,you don't have to sort through your regular contactsto delete things that you don't need.In this example, I've created the Customers address book,and you can see that it's blank,so I'm ready to begin.I'll click File, Open and Export,Import/Export,then I'll choose Import From Another Programmer File.

You don't want to forget to click Map Custom Fields.This is where I'll specifywhat to do with the columns that are in my .csv file.I'll click on Map Custom Fields,on the left side I'm presented with the fieldsfrom my .csv file.On the right side,note it says To: Microsoft Office Outlook Customers.That tells me it'll be placed in Outlookin the Customers address book.My next task is to match up the fields from the leftwith the field I'd like them to result in on the right.

I'll go ahead and choose Name, and drag it,and drop it on Name at the right.You can see that Name now appears where it said Mapped From.I'll choose Email Address and look forthat field at the right,I know this one's towards the bottom, so I'll scroll down.Here I'll drag Email Address to Email.If I had an Email 2, you'll notice there's a place for thaton the right hand side,but in this case I don't have a field with that name.Next I'll choose Address 1and look for an Address field on the right.I know this one's further upso I'll go ahead and scroll up the list.

Here I have a choice,do I want this to be in Business Address,Home Address, or Other Address,I'll go ahead and stick with Business Address in this case,and I'll click the plus to expand that field.From here, I'll drag Address 1to match up with Business Street.I'll scroll down a bit so I can seethe rest of the address fields,next I'll drag City to match up with Business City,I'll drag State to match up with Business State,and I'll drag Zip to match up with Business Postal Code.

You can tell this has been successfulwhen you see the field names from the leftdisplay under the Mapped From column on the right.Once you've mapped your fields,you can go ahead and click OK.Next we'll click Finish,and wait and see if everything worked.So now you can see the contacts are displayinginside of my customer address book.I'll go ahead and change the viewby clicking View at the top,Change View, and then choose Business Card.This allows me to quickly see several contact cards at once.

I can always double-click on oneto see more specifically.This is where you just want to verifythat everything was imported correctly.It's typical to have to do this a couple times,this can be really tricky,so if you find you get results you didn't expect,you can delete these and start over.I'll go ahead and close this contact card,a quick way to delete en masseis to click one of the cards,then press the keyboard shortcut ctrl + a,which stands for Select All, to select all of the cards.

You can see all of the headers for the cardshave turned blue, so I know they're selected,and now if I press Delete I would delete these all at once.This is why I said in the beginningthat you definitely want to import theseinto a blank address bookso that you don't have to clean these upfrom your regular contactsand sift through which contacts you want to keepand which contacts you want to get rid of.I recommend practicing this several times,this is probably the trickiest partof this section on the MOS exam.The last MOS objective in this section is sharing contacts.

Outlook enables you to share contat informationwith other email users.I'll go ahead and return to my regular contacts folderby clicking Contacts at the left,if I just want to share one contact,I can right-click on a contact,then choose Forward Contact,and then choose from the available formats.I always recommend choosing As a Business Card,because that will attach the business card,and the vCard format,which is compatible with multiple email programs.

In a MOS exam setting, it would be specifiedwhich of these options you should choose.I'll go ahead and click As a Business Card,and you can see an email is generatedwith Chong's name in the subject,his vCard attached in the attachment line,and the business card locatedinside of the body of the email.From here I could address and send the email.I'll go ahead and close the email by clicking Xat the top of the screen,and say No to saving my changes.The second option for sharing contactsis to share an entire contacts folder.

For this example, I'll right-click on myContacts address book,and choose Share, and then choose Share Contacts.From here it creates an email, with the subjectSharing Invitation Leslie Richardson - Contacts.Notice the checkbox forAllow Recipient to View Your Contacts Folder.I can also request permission to viewthe recipient's contact folder if I choose.From here I'd address and send the email.I'll go ahead and close this box,let me show the other option that was available.

Here I'll right-click the Contacts address book,choose Share,and then choose Folder Permissions.This is where I can go in and add folder permissionsand then set a specific permission level down below.It's good to be familiar with both optionsfor the MOS exam.That's our overview of managing address booksand importing contacts.Be sure to practice with the details of these options,so you can get through them quickly during the MOS exam.

The course first explores the MOS certification program and highlights its cost, format, and objectives. Megan then explains how to manage the Outlook environment by customizing settings, automating Outlook, printing and saving, and searching in Outlook. Learn how to manage messages, including creating, formatting, and organizing messages, and manage schedules, including creating and managing the calendar, appointments, meetings, and events. Learn to manage notes, tasks, journals, contacts, and groups.

Challenges exercises are included along the way, and the course concludes with a full-length practice exam.

Disclaimer: Microsoft does not produce, provide, or endorse this video training course.